


What Could Have Been

by rogueofstorms



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi (2017)
Genre: F/M, last jedi - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-21
Updated: 2016-05-05
Packaged: 2018-05-08 07:10:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 9
Words: 12,430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5488307
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rogueofstorms/pseuds/rogueofstorms
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What could have gone differently, after Kylo Ren captured Rey? What if they were brought together by more than just the Force?</p><p>A single point-of-departure exploration of how things could have been.</p><p>Please note that this fic is operating under the assumption that Kylo Ren and Rey are absolutely unrelated. Regardless of Word of God, this fic will continue to operate under that assumption.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. I Looked Into Your Eyes

“You imagine an ocean,” Kylo Ren said, his breath across her ear. “I can see it too. I can see the island. And Han Solo - he’s like a father to you. You’ll be disappointed by him.”

Rey didn’t like him being in her head, so she pushed. Surprised, Kylo Ren pulled away and moved to stand in front of her once more. One hand extended until it was almost touching Rey’s face and the pressure returned inside her mind. Ren wanted the map, wanted Luke Skywalker, wanted Rey to cave in and show it to him.

Rey pushed back again, but it was like pushing against the Millenium Falcon - effort exerted with nothing to show for it.

Kylo Ren was surprised at the girl’s untrained ability and knew that if he could draw her to the dark side of the force, the Resistance and the Republic would fall. When the girl’s resistance - Rey, her mind supplied to him - threatened to break his intrusion, Ren realised that he had to do something to break her concentration. He’d seen the way she looked at him when he removed his mask.

Kylo Ren’s hand inched closer to Rey’s face and she worried about what would happen when it touched her. The sensation of the leather glove against her face was startling, but she persisted in trying to push Kylo Ren from her mind, even as his hand gently traced down her cheek to her jaw. The lightest amount of pressure under her chin nudged her face upwards until she was looking into Kylo Ren’s eyes.

Pale blue stared down warm honey as Kylo Ren brought his face near Rey’s, whose concentration finally failed when Ren’s lips met her own in a soft kiss. A brief image of the map flashed across her mind’s eye and what remained of her will crumbled. She’d lost the mental battle, and now the First Order knew everything.

Tears leaked from Rey’s eyes as Kylo Ren smirked in triumph. Ren kissed the girl again and was pleased by the despairing confusion he sensed behind her eyes. Kylo Ren left the stormtrooper guards with orders not to enter the room or speak with the prisoner.

Supreme Leader Snoke would be most pleased.

 

* * *

 

“I was able to get the missing piece of the map, but the girl is strong in the force, though untrained.”

“Bring her to me,” Snoke said after Kylo Ren had given his report, General Hux’s commentary notwithstanding.

“At once,” Kylo Ren replied. He bowed his head slightly as Snoke’s hologram winked out, and took to the hallways of the base at a brisk walk.

When he got back to the interrogation room, Rey was gone, the restraints opened, and the guard he’d left was nowhere in sight. Ren released a guttural cry of rage and destroyed the interrogation chair using his lightsaber in a fit of pique.

“The girl is gone,” Ren said over the comms. “Find her!”

“We’ll mobilise search parties at once,” a Lieutenant replied.

“She’ll be trying to steal a ship - lock down the hangar bays until she is found,” Kylo Ren said.

“Yes, sir!”

Kylo Ren stalked down the hallways, trusting the Force to guide him to the recently-awakened girl.

Rey crept down the hallways with her stolen blaster - it had been surprisingly easy to use the fabled “Jedi mind-trick” on the guard to open the restraints and leave her his weapon. She rounded a corner after bypassing a small squad of stormtroopers and nearly shot Finn and Han.

“What’re you doing here?” Rey whispered loudly, then hugged Finn tight.

“We came to rescue you,” said Finn.

“C’mon, kids, leave now, hug later,” Han reminded them. The two broke apart and followed the old smuggler out into the wintery weather of the planet. They were nearly to the Millenium Falcon when the sounds of ships overhead made all three duck into the trees. X-Wing pilots were trying to fire on a large black building ahead, but the First Order’s tie fighters were making it difficult by shooting down the x-wings.

“Looks like they need some help,” Han Solo said. “Good thing my friend here has some explosives. I say we use them.” Han’s grin promised no quarter for the First Order, and the three rebels ran for the building.

Rey hadn’t realised it could get so cold outside of the desert nights and was glad when they made it into the building without a fight. Some quick tinkering with the controls for the doors had a path opened straight into the central control structures for the building.

“Chewie and I’ll get these set inside. You two keep an eye out for anyone coming in behind us, got it?”

“You got it, Solo,” Finn said.

“What have I told you about calling me that?” Han said.

“Sorry,” said Finn. Rey and Finn waited until Han and Chewie were out of sight before they went back outside. Seeing no pursuit - Rey fervently hoped Kylo Ren was still searching inside the main base - the two climbed an access ladder to a high level to give them a vantage point.

Kylo Ren knew the minute the girl left the main base - the feel of the Light went with her. A quick moment of concentration, and he knew that she had made her way outside, towards the thermal compressor. Another presence was with her as well - that of Han Solo. Kylo Ren clenched his fists as he ran for the compressor, pulling a Lieutenant and his platoon of stormtroopers behind him.

Inside the compressor, the stormtroopers spread out to search for the fugitives and Han Solo. Extending his senses, Kylo Ren wove between support columns and oversized thermal couplings, but the presence of Rey from somewhere behind and above him seemed to have a scrambling effect. He would need to get to a more central position to pinpoint the difference between Han Solo and Rey, and their respective locations within the core of the compressor.

Kylo Ren was halfway across the catwalk to the opposite side of the compressor when he sensed Han Solo behind him.

“Ben!” Han Solo shouted. His voice echoed off the compressor’s metal walls and walkways.

Kylo Ren turned to face the older man, making note of Rey and the traitorous stormtrooper on a walkway farther up the wall.

“Han Solo,” Kylo Ren said. “How I’ve waited for this.”

“Take that mask off, there’s no need for it here,” Han said.

“Afraid of what you’ll see?”

“I’ll see the face of my _son_.”

Kylo Ren reached up and disengaged the mask, dropping it onto the catwalk with a thud. The face that haunted Rey when she closed her eyes was revealed once more - a patrician nose with piercing blue eyes set on either side, dark curling waves of hair that came down to the neck. Han Solo walked out to meet his son in the middle of the catwalk.

Rey couldn’t hear the rest of their conversation, her mind still reeling from the revelation that Kylo Ren was _Han Solo_ ’s son, Ben Solo. She shared a glance with Finn, who looked just as confused as she was, although he probably didn’t have the added confusion of having been _kissed_ (of all things!) by the young Sith.

Rey came out of her thoughts just in time to see Han Solo place his hand over Kylo Ren’s proffered lightsaber - was Ren seeking redemption? - and then she gasped. Having taken advantage of his father’s weakness, Kylo Ren brought the lightsaber to life. The blade came right through Han Solo’s heart and out his back.

“Thank you,” Kylo Ren’s voice carried through the chamber, even as his father crumpled and fell from the walkway into the hollow depths of central core. Rey pulled out the blaster she’d stolen and shot Ren in the side. Ren stumbled and fell to his knees, but the platoon of stormtroopers opened fire on Rey, Finn, and Chewie. Chewie immediately started firing back, easily dispatching any stormtroopers who got in his path.

Kylo Ren looked up to see Rey and Finn vanish back into the snow outside. He steadied himself, then followed. Almost as soon as he cleared the building, it exploded into fire - the rebels must have planted bombs inside before he arrived. Getting the girl would make it worth it though, as long as he could get her to Supreme Leader Snoke.

Extending his Force sense, Kylo Ren tracked the stormtrooper and the girl into the forest and swirling snow.


	2. Boom, Baby!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> more than 1k hits already? Holy crap y'all~!
> 
> THANK YOUUUUUUU

“You need a teacher,” he said, bringing more pressure to bear on her blade. Rey wasn’t sure she could keep this up - Kylo Ren - Ben Solo - whichever he was, he was definnitely stronger than she was. They’d been fighting for what felt like hours already, and after Kylo Ren cut Finn down it felt like a part of Rey had left as well. The odd way his lightsaber was designed didn’t help either - the crossguard meant she had two smaller blades to worry about, even as she blocked the main one.

“I could show you the ways of the Force.” Their faces were so close together in that moment that for just a fleeting second, Rey thought about how he had kissed her, before she recalled Maz’s words about the Force.

The ground shuddered underneath them and Rey lost her footing and concentration. Instantly, Ren’s saber was at Rey’s throat, the crossguard resting just above her windpipe. Rey had lost. Again. And somehow this time she was pinned beneath Kylo Ren’s blade with him straddling her torso. Rey opened her mouth to curse Kylo once more, but the heat from the cross-bladed lightsaber grew hotter against her throat and she thought better of speaking.

Rey was struck by a sudden thought - if she agreed to let Kylo Ren teach her in the Force, maybe he’d let up on the lightsaber. Once he did that, she could run and run, all the way back to the Millenium Falcon.

“Fine,” Rey bit out.

“What?” Ren said.

“I said fine. Teach me.”

Kylo Ren narrowed his eyes at Rey - she shouldn’t have given in yet, not this easily. It seemed obvious to him that she was up to something, so while he did release her from his lightsaber, he kept hold of one of her wrists, ostensibly to help her up. As soon as Rey tensed to run, Kylo Ren pulled her towards him, crushing the arm he held between them. His other arm snaked around to press her close, a gloved hand resting at the nape of the girl’s neck.

“Let go of me!” Rey cried. She squirmed and twisted, trying to break herself free of Kylo Ren’s hold. Ren’s grip on her tightened, though, with the hand at the back of her neck curling fingers around to press lightly against the sides of her throat.

When Rey stopped trying to escape, Ren lightened his grip just slightly, maintaining a firm hold. Kylo Ren leaned his face in until their noses were almost touching and suppressed the smirk that threatened when Rey’s face flushed lightly and her breathing hitched. The hand behind Rey’s head flexed and Kylo Ren gave a light push with his mind, sending Rey into a faint.

Without her conscious mind to hold it upright, Rey’s body slumped into Kylo Ren’s arms. He gathered her up, marvelling for the second time that week at how light she was, compared to how strong she was in the Force. She looked almost peaceful like this, suddenly dependent on him to make it off StarKiller Base alive.

A short wave of his hand accompanied by minor exertion of the Force opened the loading ramp of his personal command shuttle and caused the guarding stormtroopers to snap to attention.

“Prepare us for take off,” Kylo Ren commanded his squad. “The planet won’t hold together much longer and we need to be out of range before it explodes.”

“Yes sir!” the officer in charge replied. Commands and directives flew between the nine stormtroopers present, and Kylo Ren gently laid the girl down on his bunk on his side of the ship. Considering it was also the only bunk on the ship, since the shuttle was never intended for long-term use, Ren was probably going to end up sleeping in a chair.

The ship jumped up into the air with a mild jerk, jostling the girl. Kylo Ren put out a hand to keep the unconscious girl on the bunk, only removing it once the shuttle’s flight had stabilised. The jump into the atmosphere had dislodged a thin streamer of hair from the girl’s head, and it now fell across her face. Kylo Ren stopped himself from reaching a hand out to push back the hair, but only barely - his hand was more than halfway to the girl’s face before he noticed what he was doing.

“We’re making our final approach to the _Finalizer_ , sir,” the pilot called out.

“Good. Have someone bring me a pair of binders for the prisoner,” Kylo Ren said.

“At once, sir.” The stormtroopers aboard moved into landing positions, and one - FN-2361 - brought Ren the requested binders. Rey was still unconscious, but Kylo Ren knew better than to expect her to stay that way for long, so he used the binder to cuff her hands together. The binders would serve as a backup plan in the event the girl tried to escape again.

The shuttle landed seamlessly in the main hangar of the _Finalizer_ , apparently just in time. The hangar shield had no sooner sprung back into place than StarKiller was torn apart from the inside. Clearly the Resistance had managed to damage the base enough to cause a catastrophic failure - what had once been a full-fledged planet had imploded, then ballooned back out into the sun of the system. Kylo Ren had a fleeting moment of concern for what moving the sun more than a full AU would do to the system, but he ruthlessly quashed the thought. They were leaving the system, so who cared what happened to it now.

The _Finalizer_ pulled away into hyperspace before the sun’s gravity well could reassert itself.

“Sir - “ a stormtrooper lieutenant began. Kylo Ren turned to face the man, but said nothing. “General Hux has asked for you, sir.”

“Fine,” Kylo Ren said. “Put the girl in my quarters and lock the door. No one is to go in or out, no matter what, without my permission. Leave the binders on, but otherwise do nothing.”

“Yes, sir,” the lieutenant said. A second stormtrooper went back to the shuttle to retrieve the girl, and Ren made his way to the bridge to meet with General Hux.

 

* * *

 

Rey awoke propped upright in a chair, cursed, and nearly fell when she tried to stand. She tried to put out a hand to steady herself and noticed the binders on her wrists.

“Dammit,” Rey said. She sat back down in the chair and considered her options. A door to the right of her probably led out into the ship, but she was willing to bet there was a guard there, if not more. In front of her was a small portable table that was nearly standard on spaceships, if the remnants left in the Star Destroyers wrecked on Jakku were any indicator. On the other side of the table was another chair, identical to the one she sat in - four legs, armrests, all of it made from hard plastic save for the magnetic feet. On the wall opposite the door was a bunked bed, tucked into an alcove with a safety net hanging to one side - to keep from falling out during flight? - though it didn’t look as though it had been slept in.

Whoever put her here was going to get hell for shoving her in a chair instead of the bed, Rey decided.

“It was probably Kylo - Ben - whatever his name is,” said Rey. She realised that he must have knocked her out again during their swordfight on StarKiller and she had a feeling that Ben wouldn’t be fooled again by her compliance. Calling him Ben would likely piss him off, so she resolved to do it as frequently as possible, along with reminding him that he’d killed his own father, the bastard.

Finally feeling steady enough to stand, Rey began exploring the drawers built into the wall of the room near the bed. Men’s toiletries, some emergency space rations that looked a lot like the portions she had traded scrap for on Jakku, some mechanical repair tools, other things that she guessed were tools but had never seen before. Junk. The drawers were filled with personal junk. No knives, no cutlery, nothing she could use to defend herself. Even the tools that had been left in the drawers were lightweight, simple things meant for quick fixes. Rey had been hoping for even as something as simple as a wrench, since her lightsaber was nowhere in sight.

Frustrated, Rey returned to her chair. As she sat trying to work through how to escape, Maz Kenata’s words about the Force came to her again. Rey closed her eyes and concentrated. It wasn’t easy - her mind kept returning to Ben’s face, or the way Han Solo had fallen from the walkway, or the fact that Finn was probably dead by now.

Rey was finally achieving a meditative state when the doors _whoosh_ ed open. Rey’s eyes flew open to see Kylo Ren - Ben Solo, she reminded herself - enter the room and use a keypad to lock the door behind him.


	3. Wisdom and Power

Once the door clicked to indicate being locked, Ben’s hands pushed his hood back and removed the mask that covered his face. Curled hair spilled out from under the mask and he ran a hand through it.

Kylo Ren turned to look at Rey. She looked upset - lips slightly pursed and a glint in her eyes that spoke of trouble.

“You should know that we are on our way to see Supreme Leader Snoke,” Kylo Ren said.

“You going to brainwash me? Try to turn my morals upside-down until everything you say is wisdom and you shit gold?” Rey asked sharply.

Kylo Ren smirked. “Far from it. You will be trained, and eventually you will come to see that we are right.”

“As right as killing your own father, _Ben_?” Rey spat. Rage flooded through Kylo Ren. He brought one hand up and clenched the Force around Rey’s throat, lifting her into the air. The girl gasped for breath, fear returning to her eyes. With her hands bound, there wasn’t much she could do - she knew she had gotten lucky in the cell on StarKiller, but this was different.

“Don’t call me that!” Kylo Ren said, his voice rising as he lost control for a moment. Rey’s face contorted as she tried to use her own small amount of ability with the Force to overcome Kylo Ren’s chokehold. Ren’s Force grip tightened briefly before it vanished and Rey fell to the floor, sending one of the chairs skittering away.

Kylo Ren grimaced, then approached Rey and extended a hand to help her stand again. The girl refused, choosing instead to awkwardly shift her weight until she brought herself up. She looked furious. Furious and gorgeous, though Kylo Ren quickly stifled that thought.

“I...I apologise for that,” Ren said quietly.

“Sorry won’t make it not have happened, so save your worthless words for someone who cares,” said Rey. Kylo Ren ran a hand through his hair again - this girl would be the death of him, he was sure. Especially if she couldn’t control herself around Snoke.

“Look, girl--”

“Rey. My name is Rey.”

Kylo Ren ignored her. “Snoke will not be as forgiving with you as I am. If you want to live, if you want to see FN-2187 or that pilot again, you will do exactly as I say. Understood?”

“Why?” Rey asked sullenly. Like hell was she just going agree to do whatever Ben told her to.

“Supreme Leader Snoke is wise, but you test his patience and I know what will be brought to bear on you. Our conversation earlier will be _nothing_ compared to his power.”

Rey wondered if she was imagining the fear she sensed in Ben’s eyes. Ben might be unstable, she thought, but if he was wary of Snoke, perhaps she should be too.

“Fi-,”

They dropped out of hyperspace.

“-ne,” Rey said. “Why did you warn me?”

Kylo Ren had spent some thought wondering that himself, but was saved from having to answer by a knock on the door. Ren picked up his mask and put it back on.

“Remember, _be quiet_ ,” Ren told Rey, his voice modified by the mask. He unlocked the door and allowed it to slide open.

The stormtrooper lieutenant who stood in the hallway had barely opened his mouth to speak before Kylo Ren spoke.

“Leader Snoke and General Hux are waiting for us,” Kylo Ren said.

The stormtrooper swallowed and looked momentarily afraid before he replied. “Yes, sir. They’re in the main audience chamber, sir.”

“Supreme Leader will already know I am coming with the girl. Return to your post.”

“Yes, sir.” The stormtrooper saluted and marched down the hallway.

Kylo Ren turned back into the room to face Rey. “Come,” he beckoned. When Rey didn’t move, Kylo Ren used the Force to pull her into him and got a solid grip on her upper arm with both hands.

When it looked like the girl was about to protest, Ren cut her off. “You can either come with me cooperative and quiet, or I can make you, as before. You would do well to remember that I am the closest thing to a friend that you will have here - your friends do not know where you are or how to find you. There is no rescue.”

Rey brought a foot up and stomped hard on the nearest of Ren’s feet. Kylo Ren hissed in pain and shook Rey roughly.

“Behave,” Ben told Rey. Rey glared at him - there was no need to use the same tone of voice that someone might use to admonish their errant droid! Ben frog-marched Rey down the corridors of the ship and into his command shuttle. Something like ten minutes later they made their landing on the planet below.

When Ben pushed her out of the ship Rey blinked rapidly in the sunlight to adjust her sight and was surprised to find that there was nothing around for what seemed like miles. It was a desert made of rock and scrub brush. Kylo Ren stopped seemingly randomly on the landing pad, and Rey took an extra step before she realised that other Force user had stopped.

Rey was about to ask why they had stopped when the ground beneath them jerked. A circular piece of the landing pad roughly six feet in diameter began to descend into the ground. Above their heads, a metal iris closed over the hole, and Rey unconsciously moved closer to Ben until she was pressed against his arm. The darkness was absolute, with neither moon nor star to provide even the faintest hint of the light. Ben, damn him, showed no signs of being discomfited by the dark.

After what seemed like forever or only a minute, a breeze threw itself into the vertical tunnel. As the platform further descended, underground floodlights gave off a warm yellow glow and heat. Wherever they were, this place was old. Older than the last battle between the Republic and the Empire, because these lights had to be at least a hundred years old.

Rough stone walls easily twice their height curved over their heads to make the ceiling, and metal cable runs were bolted into the stone to provide power to the lights. When Kylo Ren and Rey stepped off the platform, it rose back up into the ceiling and vanished. There was nothing to indicate that a way up to the surface existed there, and Rey got the sense that these tunnels went on for a long, long time.

“Remember what I told you in the shuttle,” Kylo Ren said. Rey nodded - she had no intention of dying so soon.

They went a ways down the hallway before it widened into an arched opening. Inside was an enormous cavern, easily three or four times as tall as Ren’s command shuttle, and wide enough to fit three Millenium Falcons. In the center of the room was a large throne-like chair, and on it sat a person unlike any Rey had ever seen.

The being on the throne would clearly be taller than Ben if he stood. The black robes he wore made the horror of his face stand out even more - narrow, pointed eyes without pupils sat above high cheekbones with the skin stretched thin down to the jaw line. In some places, it seemed like skin had been burned away, for Rey could swear she was seeing face musculature beneath and through the gaps. Long spindly fingers rested over the armrests, and the being leaned back into the chair as Kylo Ren brought her near.

In front of the throne was a man Rey hadn’t yet seen, but had heard from Han Solo and Finn - General Hux, leader of the First Order’s stormtroopers. Pale orange hair was cut close to the head, exposing a rectangular face. He wore a black uniform that made it look like he’d lost his neck somewhere, and over it was an officer’s jacket that would hang to mid-calf if the General were standing, which he wasn’t.

Kylo Ren made eye contact with General Hux and smirked behind his mask. Ren had succeeded in his tasks, whereas Hux had managed to not only fail to destroy the Resistance, but had lost StarKiller Base in the process. It had taken entirely too long for that base to finish construction, even with the help of stormtrooper clones, and replacing it was going to be difficult, if not impossible, before the war with the Republic came to a head.

Rey felt almost stifled in the cavern, as though there wasn’t quite enough air - and Ben was the only thing that could shield her from the oppressive presence. When Snoke turned his gaze to her, the pressure increased until Kylo Ren’s hold on her arm was perhaps the only thing keeping her upright.

“Excellent work, my young Ren,” Snoke said. His voice echoed in the cavern, deeper than would have been expected for so thin a frame. “You are dismissed, General.”

Hux got up on his feet and left the cavern at a quick march, and Kylo Ren did not speak until the General had left. Rey found herself wondering if it would be possible to play the two off each other until one or both were dead, then realised that wasn’t a very Jedi thought to have.

Snoke lifted a finger and suddenly a pressure easily twenty times stronger than what Kylo Ren had brought to bear came down on Rey’s mind. She pushed back for as long as she could, but the pressure only increased, and soon Rey was helpless as Snoke rifled through her mind.

“I see your words from earlier bear fruit, Ren,” said Snoke. “She is indeed strong in the Force. You will teach her what you can, just as I teach you what can be taught. The Resistance believes us gone, and so we will bide our time until the moment is right.”

“As you say, master,” Kylo Ren bowed his head briefly before turning and walking out of the cavern with Rey.


	4. In Which Something Strange is Done

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> seriously, y'all are way too kind, the stats for this fic are blowing me away!

The first day of training with Rey was not going too well. Kylo Ren had managed to find her some different clothing to wear, and the girl had spent nearly an hour carefully picking the outfit over to check for trackers or other hidden surprises. 

He was currently attempting to show the girl how to extend her senses using the Force - how to find other Force users, or specific non-Force users. The problem was that Rey just didn’t trust him enough to close her eyes when he was nearby - Kylo Ren was pretty sure that the girl hadn’t slept last night, either. 

His patience was at an end. “Clearly this isn’t working, scavenger girl,” Ren said. 

“Why do you keep calling me that? I have a name you know,” said Rey. 

Ren quirked his lips, but didn’t respond directly to the girl. “I will show you the saber forms, then.” 

Rey huffed. 

 

* * *

 

Less than a week since she had been captured, and they were on the move. The base she had originally been brought to was cleared, all traces of recent habitation removed, and Rey was stuck handcuffed to a bolted-in table on Ben’s shuttle. The abominable asshole was off talking to the General or to Snoke, leaving Rey alone with her thoughts. 

She’d spent the first hour trying to get out of the handcuffs, but the binders were solid - it would take more strength with the Force or a lightsaber to remove them without cutting off her hands. Rey had slumped against the table and found herself wishing for at least a holocron to read. 

At a loss for things to keep herself occupied, Rey finally began to try and practice what Ben had been attempting to teach her all week - sensing with the Force. It was how he had known where to go on StarKiller, and also how to find her in the forest outside Maz Kenata’s dive.  

Rey crossed her legs beneath her and tried to get moderately comfortable. She closed her eyes, and focused inwards, reaching for the sensation she had so briefly felt during the fight with Ben in the forest on StarKiller. 

 

* * *

 

The girl had been practicing. Three weeks into captivity and five locations later, the girl was starting to sense Kylo Ren’s presence before he approached her. Ren wondered if the girl realised that she was turning to face the door before he’d gotten to it. The scavenger girl was also starting to get a handle on proper lightsaber forms - as someone who had been the best of Skywalker’s younglings, Ren got the sense that Rey could be his equal with a blade one day. As long as she was on his side of things, he saw no reason to be concerned over it.

Rey had also stopped snapping at him so much, though Kylo Ren could tell that the girl still harbored thoughts of escape. Perhaps in a few weeks she would stop thinking of running away and Kylo Ren would be able to allow the girl to roam without binders.

Today they were training in an unused section of the _Finalizer_ \- with the loss of StarKiller and any troops that couldn’t make it off-base, significant portions of the Star Destroyer were now empty and devoid of inhabitants. Kylo Ren had found them a large mess hall to spar in, and the girl was getting visibly frustrated. 

“Will you...stop...moving!” Rey snarled at Kylo Ren. He smirked, then disarmed her and closed for hand-to-hand combat. The pair traded blows in between dodging and weaving around each other - Rey landed a decent open-palm hit against Kylo Ren’s shoulder, but left herself open to retaliation. Kylo Ren took the opportunity presented by getting ahold of the thin wrist, then swept a leg underneath the girl to unbalance her. Ren twisted Rey’s arm up behind the middle of her back and pressed the girl to the ground. 

“Yield,” he said into Rey’s ear.  

“Get over yourself, Ben,” Rey spat. Rey briefly pushed with the Force, catching Kylo Ren unprepared, which loosened his grip on her. Taking advantage of the momentary lapse, Rey flipped the both of them over until she sat on Kylo Ren’s abdomen. It was their most awkward tie to date - Rey had Kylo Ren technically pinned, but he had hold of both wrists and was gripping them tightly behind Rey’s back, such that Rey lay nearly flush against him.

“Yield,” Ren said again.  

“Not on your life.” 

Kylo Ren reversed their positions, then gave in to the temptation and kissed Rey. The girl’s cheeks flushed and her breaths grew short. 

“Now will you yield?” he asked.  

Rey’s eyes narrowed and she huffed indignantly.

“You need to say it before I let you up, Rey,” Kylo Ren told her.

“Argh. You win, alright, asshole?” Rey said. Kylo Ren kissed her again, and this time Rey found herself kissing back. Ren held back the smirk that threatened as he realised Rey was coming to actually like him. He deepened the kiss briefly before letting Rey up from the floor.

 

* * *

 

Two months into being a ‘guest’ of the First Order and Rey was finally allowed to roam without binders and without Ben escorting her everywhere. The design of the _Finalizer_ wasn’t that much different than the wrecked Star Destroyer that she’d pulled scrap from on Jakku, so Rey knew her way around pretty well. The major difference was that this Destroyer was still functional, so there were parts of the ship that weren’t meant to be accessible, and other parts that looked very different with people in them.

She maximised this freedom, hunting down escape routes and trying to plot out a way to get off the ship without Ben noticing. Rey was nearly certain that Ben’s effective range using the Force to sense her presence encompassed the whole ship; her own range was a small fraction of that, maybe the length of the main hangar bay.

Rey found herself thinking about Kylo Ren frequently, which was concerning when she noticed that she was consequently thinking about Finn and the rest of the Resistance less. At first she had accused Ben of using the Force to mess with her mind, but the fight that had resulted from that had nearly punched a hole in the ship, which suggested that the problem lay within herself.

It was also getting increasingly hard to remember what she had heard about how the Jedi used the Force - the tranquility, the elimination of emotional thinking. Rey was fighting with frustration, with passion, even with despair to power her Force abilities, and each time she found a way around one of Ben’s tricks she felt the glow of pride.

 

* * *

 

Then came the day a Resistance scout found the _Finalizer_. Orders were broadcast across the ship as the reduced crew scrambled to stations. General Hux sent tie fighters to intercept, but the pilot was good, whoever they were, and managed to evade fire while taking out two fighters.

Kylo Ren grinned faintly as an idea came to him. It was only a matter of time before the scout alerted the Resistance, if they weren’t already aware. The Resistance would send more pilots, possibly even enough to bring the _Finalizer_ to its deathbed.

A quick moment of focus and he had pinpointed Rey - she was near the berth she’d been given, next to his own quarters. Five minutes and he had made his way over to her - the girl must be distracted, since she apparently hadn’t sensed his presence. He took the opportunity to sneak up on Rey and pulled her into an alcove with a hand over her mouth, pressing her body close against his.

Muffled sounds of impotent rage filtered through his gloved hand.

“Quiet,” Kylo Ren said softly. Rey stilled, and Ren thanked the stars for that small mercy.

Slightly less angry muffled sounds.

“A Resistance scout has found us.”

Muffled sound of shock. Kylo Ren used a free hand to disengage his mask.

“There’s a small escape vessel in an unused portion of the ship on the port side. No one will take notice of you until it’s gone. Go quickly, go quietly. Nod if you understand me.”

Muffled sound of agreement accompanied by a small nod.

“I’m going to take my hand away now. No questions. Just go. Understood?”

Rey’s eyes softened as she turned around to look at him.

“Remember this: The Jedi preach balance, but they cannot see beyond themselves. Balance to a Jedi is only Jedi, only the Light. Where is the balance in that?”

Ren kissed her then, slow and lingering and full of promises. When Kylo Ren pulled away, Rey stood there for a moment in surprise before she spun on one booted heel and ran as fast as she dared for the mentioned escape pod.


	5. Pervasive Thoughts Are Like Sandfleas

He could sense her faintly, like the buzz of an old light about to blow out - she was at least halfway across the galaxy, likely at the Resistance base now after he’d ordered the  _ Finalizer _ to stand down when her pod left the ship.

  _“Stand down?! Are you out of your mind, Ren?” General Hux had asked._

_ “Careful, General. I might lose my temper again. This is part of the plan.” _

_ “Like the loss of StarKiller?” _

_ “Do not blame me for your own failings,” Kylo snapped. One of his hands moved threateningly towards his saber and Hux took a step away from young Sith. “The girl will return to us, in time. Let her have her freedom for now. It will make her betrayal of the Light that much sweeter.” _

Kylo Ren knew that Hux had gone to Leader Snoke to complain and been told to drop the matter, which was for the better. He didn’t need a barely-competent baseline man questioning his plans - questioning Leader Snoke’s plans, really.

Odd how his thoughts kept coming back to the scavenger girl - to Rey. At some point during the training Kylo Ren had started using her name, hadn’t even noticed the shift in his thoughts, and now Rey seemed to dominate. He found himself thinking of the way her lips felt under his own, how right it had felt to have her against him that one day when they had tusselled and pinned each other. 

Kylo Ren was supposed to be running through the forms with his Knights of Ren, not daydreaming about the girl. He summoned his anger - anger at Han Solo, anger at Luke Skywalker, anger at himself for being so easily distracted from his goals by a slip of a girl, anger at thinking about her again - Ren tried to focus on the forms.

The training sabers he’d devised were essentially glorified sticks roughly the length of a properly made saber. Overhand, side-swing, parry, reposte, counter-reposte, disarm and twirl, duck, overhand, side-swing, spin to dodge, one-hand slice, duck and swing for the hamstring. Repeat. Kylo imagined himself cutting down Resistance fighters, traitors, murderers, thieves, General Organa, the feel of his saber through Han Solo’s chest, until the sweat on his forehead threatened to enter his eyes.

Ren called a halt to break and let the Knights get some water. Rey again. Her eyes when they sparred, the way she’d called him  _ monster _ in the forest of StarKiller, the discussion he’d tried to have with her in his quarters about the Force. Rey just wouldn’t  _ get out of his head _ . Kylo wondered how the Resistance was treating her, and smirked - after a little more than two months as his guest, he had a feeling that it wasn’t going to be a hero’s welcome.

 

* * *

 

Some hero’s welcome this was. She wished she hadn’t caved and started wearing the clothing Ben had found for her. The dark, almost charcoal grey, vest lay over a lighter grey tunic and shortened pants. Black boots similar in design to Ben Solo’s, a cowl that was twin to the impossible man’s own, and arm sleeves made from cloth strips completed the look. The outfit as a whole created a diametric contrast to what she had been wearing when she was first captured, and Rey was nearly certain that Ben had done it on purpose. Maybe it was his way of getting back at her for calling him Ben all the time, though she was pretty sure that he worked out that aggression when they had sparred.

The triumph she’d felt the first time she disarmed him with the training saber came to mind then, even as the Resistance pilots around her stopped what they were doing to stare.

Whispers broke out behind her and she wondered at the cause. The only person she would have know here was Finn, and she still didn't know if he'd survived the destruction of StarKiller Base. There was also Chewbacca, although whether or not he was friendly to her was still debatable. The scout that was guiding her, or possibly guarding her, led Rey into a small cavern.

Rey’s windpipe clenched, her breathing strained, and suddenly she was back on the planetoid where Ben had brought her to Snoke. The ghost of pressure in her mind brought Rey to her knees and she wondered why Ben wasn't there to hold her up.

“Are you alright?” the scout asked. His words brought Rey out of whatever had just happened. The scout had a hand extended and took Rey’s in his own to pull her back to her feet.

“Don't take my hand!” Rey growled. The scout dropped Rey’s hand and motioned for her to follow.

Rey focused on the scout’s clothing to keep from losing herself in the memory of Snoke in the rough stone tunnels. The hall wound around in a vague downward spiral before depositing Rey and the scout in a larger cavern filled with plas screens and Resistance organisers. A woman in a purple vest with gray hair done up in a braid turned to greet the scout.

“Poe, it's so good to have you back,” the woman said.

“Thank you, General Organa. This is the girl that Finn and…” Poe trailed off before picking the sentence back up. “The girl they went to rescue before StarKiller was destroyed. She apparently managed to finally escape the First Order and we picked her up during our retreat from the star destroyer.”

“So this is the girl from Jakku. We heard about you from my husband and that young man who defected. What's your name?” asked General Organa.

Rey shifted restlessly. “I'm Rey.”

“Walk with me, Rey. We have a lot to talk about.”

 

* * *

 

Finn had been critically injured and was comatose while he healed. Rey felt guilty and angry and all kinds of upset with herself about Finn’s injuries - if only she hadn't gotten distracted by Ben. 

Rey felt the anger and shame building up inside her and decided to borrow from Ben’s teachings. There didn't seem to be any training sabers on the Resistance base so Rey wandered until she found a cleared area. Slowly she worked her way through the forms, picking up speed and aggression until her arms grew tired and sweat dotted her forehead.

“You remind me of my son,” General Organa said from behind Rey. Rey turned to look at the General, almost grateful for the excuse to halt her practice.

“Your son?”

“Ben. The young man who held you captive for these past few months.”

“You’re  _ Leia Organa Solo _ ? Sister to  _ Luke Skywalker _ ?”

“Yes, I am. Han Solo was my husband. How was my son?”

Rey tilted her head slightly, trying to find a way to say everything. “Ben was...Ben was kinder to me than he needed to be. Angry, though, angry at almost everything.”

“So there is still good in him. Still a chance he could come home to me. We tried to help him stay in the Light, sent him away to learn with Luke.”

“How can you--?” Rey was confused - Leia knew that Ben had killed Han, and there was still hope for Ben to turn to the Light? From the way Ben had spoken of the Jedi and the very deliberate way he never seemed to speak about his past, Rey had gotten the impression that it would take more than a miracle.

“The Force will find a way. Perhaps even you can find a way. I’m sending you to my brother. I can tell you have some ability with the Force - he’ll train you.”

“You’re sending me to be trained by  _ Luke Skywalker _ ?”

“Are you always this excitable, Rey?”

Rey didn’t know how to respond to that - she was still getting over the star-shock that she was to be trained by Luke. And then, like a sandflea that just won’t buzz off, Rey found herself thinking of Ben - of Kylo Ren. How would Luke teach her the ways of the Force? How would it be different from Ben’s? Rey was sure that on some level it would be the same, since Ben had trained with Luke.

As General Organa helped get things situated and got Rey packed into the Millenium Falcon, Rey was still thinking of Ben. Her hand unconsciously came up to lightly touch her lips, still remembering the last kiss she and Ben had shared.  _ What was happening to her? _


	6. Drifting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> well, now that the holidays are over and I've finished my latest cosplay project, here's a new chapter! yay! :)

She was stone -  a lake -  an island in the sea -  the shifting sands of Jakku - a ship in the depths of space that looked suspiciously like Kylo Ren’s command shuttle, piercing blue eyes that were perilously close to her own. Crap.

“Focus, padawan,” Luke admonished Rey. 

A flash of irritation crossed Rey’s mind before she did her best to stifle it. Rey found it strange how much harder it was to meditate properly out on this island, when in theory this would be the ideal location. There was no-one and nothing around for miles except the ocean and wildlife, and Luke of course, and yet Rey found that she had more trouble here than she could ever recall having on the  _ Finalizer _ with Ben. And dammit, there she went thinking about him again.

Three months since Rey had been ‘rescued’ by the Resistance. Her frustration mounted daily as her training with Luke didn’t seem to have progressed beyond hold this particular boulder in the air without dropping it, or meditate quietly for hours, or other similar menial exercises. There had been no training with the lightsaber, no discussions of tactics or the training that had been given to Ben.

“What’s on your mind, Rey?” Luke asked. Rey opened her eyes to find the renowned Jedi looking at her with concern. Did she want to answer him honestly?

“Sir, when am I going to really learn something? It doesn’t feel like I’ve learned anything new since General Organa sent me to you,” said Rey. 

“Patience is a virtue all Jedi should strive for,” Luke said. He grinned suddenly, and looked years younger having done so. “But I thought you’d never ask. We can start with basics, now that you have a better handle on your connection to the force. Follow me.”

That conversation started a new level of training, and Rey wasn’t sure she liked it all that much. It mostly consisted of Luke using the Force to chuck small rocks at her that she was expected to either dodge or deflect. These exercises didn’t excuse her from having to float the boulder though, and despite the addition to the training regimen, it was only a few weeks before Rey grew restless once again.

Fortune was with her when a Resistance scout landed a few days later to check up on things and report back to General Organa. Rey snuck her way into the copilot seat, badgered the scout into taking her with him to Organa instead of back to Skywalker, and enjoyed the ride through hyperspace away from tedium.

Rey’s meeting with General Organa didn’t go nearly so well - once the two women had worked out the frustrations, though, they could talk like rational people.

“I just couldn’t take another day of nothing but meditating and having rocks thrown at me!” Rey said. “Especially with only Master Skywalker for company.”

General Organa looked like she was holding back a grin. “Rey, I understand. Luke was the same way during his training, and my Ben as well. Maybe some time away will do you good. How would you like to run an errand for me?”

Rey perked up at that - at last, she thought, a chance to actually  _ do _ something! Rey agreed readily to General Organa’s terms for the errand, though Rey quickly began to think of it as a mission.

It wasn’t anything terribly difficult. Rey was asked to hop on a small vessel as it went on a supply run and assist with the collection process. Easy in, easy out, just like hauling scrap for the junk lords on Jakku.

 

* * *

 

Of course, the mission didn’t go simply at all.

The customs officers on Zul Ad III had refused to let the little supply ship dock until it was almost out of fuel, and then required an amount of bribery that General Organa hadn’t accounted for. Rey thought about attempting to mind-trick the customs folks, but she’d never heard anything about being able to do it through a comm and decided to save the experiments in the Force for a less volatile crew and time.

When they finally made it into the spaceport, the crew scattered to fetch the required supplies, leaving Rey with her admittedly small and sad list of items to acquire. A five year old might have had difficulty with the list given to Rey, but as an adult it was almost an insult. Less than an hour had passed when Rey returned to the small spaceship with her items, and with none of the other crew aside from a guard for the ship around, Rey decided to go exploring.

The spaceport was essentially a small city on a flat disc, covered by an atmo dome, and designed to keep refilling ships and crew off-planet. It did a pretty decent job - Rey passed what seemed to be an entire row of nothing but various bars and cantinas lit by lurid signs before she reached a small market area.

Trinkets and toys were displayed everywhere, and the occasional stall had ship parts and some pieces that looked like the staff from Jakku that Rey had lost. Alien beings she’d never seen before hawked their wares, ship crew and traders bustled around with droids collecting their shopping. So occupied was she in watching the crowd that Rey didn’t notice the trio of mercenaries who came up behind her and flanked.

A mesh bag was thrown over Rey’s head at the same time as one of the mercenaries pulled her arms back into a lock and dragged her into an alley. Rey opened her mouth to tell them what she thought of such treatment and found that they’d planned for it - the bag had been soaked in some kind of tranquilising substance. As she inhaled to curse the mercenaries out, the world went black and Rey felt herself slump to the ground.

Rey came to on an unknown ship and immediately began categorising her surroundings. Maintenance box to her left, the style of grating ruled out a number of classes of ship, a panel with levers to her right. Now she just had to find a way out of the room she’d clearly been locked in to. Luckily for Rey, and completely moronic on the parts of her captors, they had only bound her wrists with a bit of steel cabling ties. A moment of concentration was all she needed to break free of the ties, and then Rey turned her attention to the lock in the door.

Using the Force on a small scale like a door lock was novel, and far more tiring than Rey had expected. Sweat broke out on her forehead as she carefully used her mind to nudge the lock in the right direction - the locking mechanism was only accessible from the other side of the door, and so Rey was totally reliant on the Force to guide her.

Minutes ticked by as Rey carefully manipulated the mechanism, and she stifled a “whoop!” of joy when it finally clicked into place. Rey inched the door open and checked for a guard. No one was in sight, so she quickly stepped into the hallway and locked the door behind her.

Once she made her way to the small hangar bay on the ship, Rey got herself onto a small scouting craft and prepped it for takeoff. After the brief joyride she’d gotten to take with the Millenium Falcon, this little thing was nothing special, but Rey was happy to be flying again all the same.

As soon as Rey was safely away from the mercenaries, she allowed the small craft to drift and enjoyed watching the galaxy and outlying stars float by. Rey eventually fell asleep in the pilots chair, surrounded by nothing but the ship and silence.


	7. Return of the not-Jedi

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My muse deserted me ;_; But it's back! I'll try to finish this up soon, I think.

Kylo Ren could feel her - the girl was closer than she’d been for months, and suddenly his mind was consumed by thoughts of her. He could remember the feel of her lips against his, but not if she’d ever let her hair out of its buns. The way she grinned when she thought she’d won, but not if she had freckles or not. 

Kylo Ren was annoyed. With himself, for allowing himself to be distracted by a girl he barely knew, and also for forgetting things that seemed so important to remember about her. He’d have to study her closely next time their paths crossed.

Which was starting to feel sooner rather than later, if the nearness of her presence in the Force was anything to go by. It almost felt like - but no, General Hux would have sent someone for him if Rey were onboard.

Kylo spent ten minutes watching a holovid in silence, a small corner of his mind occupied by the Force presence of Rey. When that presence spiked and carried with it a sensation of panic, pain, and anger, he paused the vid and donned his helmet.

Someone was hurting his apprentice. Kylo Ren pulled on his own anger, drawing it into himself and storing it up until it became a palpable aura around him. He used it to home in on Rey’s presence and did some quick mental mapping to discover her actual location. He should have guessed from the emotions she was giving off - Rey was in one of the interrogation rooms near Hux’s private quarters.

Kylo Ren’s booted feet stomped down the halls to the interrogation room. Stormtroopers and First Order personnel scattered out of his way and in his wake, unwilling to approach the young Sith when he was so obviously pissed off about something. Everyone had heard the tales about his reaction to the scavenger girl’s first escape. No cries of pain echoed down the hallway, which meant that whoever was interrogating the girl had closed the door. The rooms were designed to be soundproof, but the First Order had found that letting other members of a group listen to screams of pain made it easier to get answers.

Before long Kylo was outside the interrogation room.

“Stand aside,” he ordered the stormtrooper outside the door.

“Sir, General Hux said no one was to enter,” the idiot stormtrooper replied.

Kylo Ren brought pressure to bear on the soldier, using the Force to close the man’s airways until he scrabbled at his throat. 

“I will only ask this once more: Stand aside,” Kylo said as he released the stormtrooper. The soldier brought a hand to his throat and shuffled away from the door. Kylo Forced the door open to see one of Hux’s top interrogators working on Rey. A burst of Force flung the torturer into the wall of the room, and a second burst broke open the restraints holding Rey in a chair not unlike the one she’d been in when Kylo first brought her onto the  _ Finalizer _ . Kylo Ren offered a hand to help the girl out of the chair, which she ignored in favour of getting up under her own power.

Rey glanced dismissively at the interrogator and Force-pushed him until the man’s head lay against the wall at an awkward angle, which caused Kylo to laugh faintly. Such a petty gesture, and yet it managed to perfectly encapsulate how much the interrogator didn’t matter in the long run.

“Let’s go,” Kylo Ren told Rey.

Rey nodded briefly before following the young Sith back to his own quarters. Stormtroopers pressed themselves against the walls and into side rooms in an effort to avoid the two Force-users, neither of which spoke until they were safely ensconced in Kylo Ren’s quarters.

The pair took seats at a small table facing each other. Kylo Ren was the first to speak.

“How did you get here?” he asked. Rey snorted.

“Get that off your head before your curly locks flatten, Ben,” Rey replied. She could almost feel Ben narrowing his eyes at her before he disengaged the filters and removed his mask.

“Rey, how did you get here? Last I saw you, you were in an escape pod headed as far from here as possible.”

“Well, I saw your mother,” Ben winced as Rey continued, “and she sent me out on a supply run as backup with some other rebels. Apparently the markets on Zul Ad III aren’t as safe as she’d like to think.”

“What happened?”

“Some idiot mercenaries thought they could collect bounty on me. Kidnapped me and dragged me onto their ship. I escaped by stealing one of their scout ships and was enjoying a nap in the cockpit when the  _ Finalizer _ picked me up. Suddenly I’m under arrest - again - and then strapped in another of those blasted chairs being tortured by your people. Not really the best way to greet me, Ben,” Rey huffed, finally completing the tale.

“My apologies for their actions,” Kylo Ren said. From what Rey had said, he was going to need to have a friendly chat with the General about the girl and her treatment.

Rey shrugged and waved his words away. The two sat in silence for a few minutes before Kylo finally spoke again.

“Do you want to leave again?”

Rey spent long moments thinking about it. She remembered how frustrating her training had been with Master Luke, how the rebels treated her; Rey compared that to her training with Kylo, and the general lack of interest shown by the stormtroopers and staff of the  _ Finalizer _ . Weighing the two groups against each other, the decision wasn’t all that hard.

“I’ll stay,” Rey said, suprising Kylo Ren. Surprise quickly became smug pleasure for Kylo as he recalled that his prediction months prior that Rey would come to see his side of things.

“Well, then,” Kylo said, “I’ll get someone to clear out quarters nearby for you. You’ll sleep here for now, I’m sure you are tired.”

Rey flashed a small smile at Ben. “That sounds like a plan, then. Training tomorrow?”

“Only after we’ve made sure that idiot did no lasting damage.”

Rey rolled her eyes, then made her way over to Ben’s bunk. She found an edge of the covers and rolled herself into them before she curled into herself on the mattress.

“Night, Ben,” she called softly.

Kylo didn’t answer, instead he sat and waited until she had fallen asleep. Small flyaway pieces of hair blew softly in the wake of Rey’s breathing and Kylo Ren spent a number of minutes trying to memorise the way her face looked when she slept. As the girl’s breathing evened out, Kylo pulled his mask back over his head and stomped off to have a ‘discussion’ with General Hux.

Rey would have said that calling it a ‘discussion’ was the second biggest understatement in the galaxy, right after ‘galactic war is bad’. It started out amicably enough, with Kylo Ren asking Hux how the girl was picked up and why she went to interrogation. When Kylo demanded to know why he hadn’t been notified, the ‘discussion’ evolved into a full argument, verging on a shouting match.

Stormtroopers due to make their reports elected to remain in the hallway and trade worried-feeling glances at each others’ helmets rather than enter.

“You did not need to know,” Hux said.

Kylo Ren tried to remain calm, and succeeded only in coiling his anger tight against his skin. “She is my apprentice, Hux! The girl should never have been tortured after being found!”

Hux’s face started to turn purple with rage of his own. “That scavenger girl has clearly spent time with the rebels. Mercenaries reported her presence in another system with known rebel sympathizers - she must know something!”

“Then it is my job to discover it, Hux! Unless you’d like to explain to Supreme Leader how your actions drove one of the strongest Force-users of the decade away from our cause?”

The General visibly deflated at that threat - the less they had to speak to Snoke, the better. It was one of the few things Kylo Ren and General Hux could agree on.

“Understood, Kylo Ren,” Hux said finally.

“Excellent.” Kylo Ren swept from the room, his long tunic billowing out behind him, and made his way to the quartermasters to arrange for Rey’s room.


	8. In Which Nothing Much Has Changed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> really short chapter - my muse hasn't been cooperating lately. :( 
> 
> I should be able to manage a longer one next time, and chapter 10 will essentially be an epilogue of sorts.

Rey woke with a start to find Kylo - Ben - asleep in a chair. His body was turned towards her as if he’d been watching her in her sleep and a flicker of suspicion crossed Rey’s mind. She carefully pulled herself into a sitting position and floated into a meditative state of mind. Her brief training with Master Skywalker had included detecting and repelling attempts at the mind-trick, among other mental trickery, and Rey now checked to be sure that no such thing had been tried in her sleep.

Her mind was still her own, but if that was the case why was it that she was slightly pleased to see that it looked like Ben had fallen asleep watching over her? Why did she feel like he hadn’t been as happy to see her as she was him? Rey narrowed her eyes - the thought that she was happy to see someone who had taken her captive multiple times was mildly disturbing.

Rey shook the thoughts from her head and re-settled her clothing on herself as she stood from the thin bed. Noting that Ben hadn’t been woken up by her movements, Rey took the opportunity to snoop around his quarters again - nothing had changed in the months of her absence. Unwilling to meditate further, and finding nothing new to explore inside Ben’s room, Rey took it upon herself to wake her counterpart up.

She started by softly calling his name - “Ben” “Ben” “Ben Solo” - and when that didn’t work, the name the First Order used for him - “Kylo” “Ren” “Kylo Ren”. With no noticeable reaction to either of those, Rey moved on to stage two - physical nuisance. She poked Ben in the arm.

When that still didn’t wake her sometimes teacher, Rey combined both attacks, poking Ben in various locations while calling his name. Rey was so used to his nonresponsiveness after more than 20 minutes of this that she squeaked when both of Ben’s hands shot forward to grab her wrists.

“Enough, woman,” Ben growled. Rey smirked at him. Silence descended on the two Force-users and they stared at one another, unwilling to break either their gazes or the silence. Rey was suddenly reminded of the first time she had seen his face, the silence similarly weighing on her.

Ben’s lips twitched briefly before he shifted position. Now, both of Rey’s wrists were held by Ben’s left hand. His right hand came up to cup the side of her face, and she was drawn into a kiss. She kissed back like a woman starved, a fervor and passion for Ben coming to the fore that she hadn’t even realised was there.

She’d missed Ben. Even when she knew that he lacked scruples, when she’d watched him commit patricide, when he was in helping to command an army bent on galactic domination. Rey groaned and Ben apparently took that as encouragement, pulling her closer in to him until their torsos were touching.

The two broke for air finally and Rey felt oddly bereft. If the look on Ben’s face was anything to go by, he felt similarly stunned by the depth of their need for each other.

“So,” Rey breathed out. “Training?”

Kylo Ren shook his head, then grinned as a thought came to him. “Not yet. You need to be checked for injuries caused by those morons yesterday.”

“You actually trust your people to do a proper medical on me?”

“No,” Kylo said. Rey was taken aback at the definitive answer.

“So how do you propose I get checked out?”

Kylo put on his fa--no, Han Solo’s, best leer and was rewarded with a giggle from Rey. Rey arched an eyebrow at Kylo, who lunged forward at her. Rey danced away from Kylo’s hands with a smile and Kylo gave chase across his room. He finally cornered Rey against the drawers set into the wall near the bunk and kissed her. Rey’s eyes glimmered with amusement when he pulled away.

“So…?” Rey asked.

“Now we can  _ check you out _ ,” Kylo replied with a hint of a growl in his voice. “Do you want to strip or will I have to do it?”

Rey shimmied out from between Kylo and the wall before she pulled the top layer of her clothing off. She let it drop to the floor with a grin. One thing led to another, and roughly an hour later Kylo Ren had completed a very thorough and enjoyable examination of Rey and concluded that she was okay to start training with him.

Stormtroopers they passed in the halls stopped momentarily to stare - or so Rey assumed - as the pair made their way to the same room they had trained in months ago. When Kylo Ren dumped Rey flat on her back for the fourth time, she finally admitted that she was rusty.

“What did Skywalker have you doing, Rey?” Ben grinned from atop her after he pinned her down again.

“A lot of sitting and thinking, Ben. And a few times I got to move rocks.”

“Ah. The foundationals then. A waste of time for someone with your natural talent.”

Rey hmm’d in response. In a move reminiscent of one she pulled on Ben months ago, Rey managed to flip their positions.

“Guess I haven’t lost everything you taught me,” she commented.

Ben kissed Rey until her grip loosened on him. He surged upwards, using the Force to support himself until he was upright with Rey cradled in his arms.

“This is oddly familiar,” Rey said.

“It is isn’t it?” Ben put Rey back down and began working her through the forms of lightsaber combat.


	9. Finalizing

Over the next year Rey trained with Ben whenever they had time and was soon able to match him in their practice fights with lightsabers.  By this time the crew and personnel had accepted Rey as part of the Order, but she had yet to prove herself to the Knights of Ren and Supreme Leader Snoke. 

A hand snaked around her waist while she was lost in thought, and suddenly Rey was face to face with Ben. He captured her lips with his in a kiss that promised more and caused heat to rise to Rey’s face - even after a year, she had yet to get used to the physical intimacy she had with the young man. She kissed back just as fervently, using one of her hands to pull herself into Ben’s embrace until their torsos were touching and she could feel his rising excitement even through his robes.

They pulled apart with gasp of air and spent a moment to gather themselves before Ben spoke.

“There’s a mission for you, my scavenger,” he said teasingly.

“Finally,” Rey said. “What’s the mission?”

“A border town under the Order’s control has rebelled. You are to find the leader and bring them in for questioning.” 

“Just me?”

“I believe this is the test that we have been waiting for. Perform well, and Leader Snoke will likely give you to me as my second-in-command.” Ben tugged on Rey’s wrists and she raised an eyebrow at him in response.

“This could be the opening we need,” Ben said. “If Snoke trusts you, and trusts _us_ , we might be able to complete our own plans within a few years!”

Rey grinned up at Ben. “Perfect,” she said, and then kissed him again.

One week later, Rey returned with the rebellion’s instigator, a young man named Lukan whose sister had apparently been part of Skywalker’s new Jedi Order. Rey handed Lukan over to General Hux and the First Order, then nearly ran for the quarters she was now sharing with Ben to celebrate.

It wasn’t long before Kylo Ren brought Rey along on his missions to act as a lieutenant of the Knights. When they found the new base used by Skywalker to train Force-sensitive teens in the ways of the Jedi, Rey hesitated. She knew how the Order worked - no Jedi to stand against them, to rally the Resistance against the Empire - but she couldn’t bring herself to kill the girl standing in front of her.

“You cannot hesitate,” Kylo told her. “This must be done if we are to maintain our positions.” He knew the struggle his love was under, having had the same issue years previous when he massacred the then-new Temple to prove himself to Snoke. Kylo used the Force to send a reassuring thought to Rey’s mind. 

The rest of the new Jedi base was quickly cleared, but when Rey finally cut the girl down, Luke himself had already escaped.

 

* * *

_Five years later_

“Wipe it out,” she said, her voice chilly. Kylo Ren’s right hand rested on the small of her back, his fingers making small circles. They watched together as General Hux gave the order to fire, and the _Starkiller_ dreadnought ship obliterated the only habitable planet orbiting Tliko. Tliko E, the fifth planet out from the red giant star, had become a hub for the Resistance - a source for the Resistance’s supplies and personnel. Frustratingly, neither Rey nor Kylo had been able to retrieve useful information from the contacts on Tliko E.

The Resistance might be able to continue to hide, but running was going to become increasingly difficult as more and more of the galaxy fell under the First Order’s control.

A beam shot out from their _Starkiller_ ship, the bright blinding red visible from the bridge of the _Finalizer_. When it hit the planet, at first nothing happened, then the crust started to bubble up. Red light mixed with the molten mantle of the Tliko E and shone through the cracks until the whole planet was riddled with them. Eventually, the vibrations caused by the device overcame the planet’s gravity, and chunks of the surface went flying in all directions. The Tliko system had a new asteroid belt.

“Are you alright,” Kylo Ren asked Rey, his voice pitched low so that the others on the bridge wouldn’t hear.

Rey’s eyes flicked over to Kylo’s face before returning to watch the remains of Tliko E. “I think so. It had to be done, after all - the Tlikans were never going to give up the Resistance. Shame to waste such a resource-full planet, though.”

 

* * *

  _Tw_ _o years after that_

“It’s time, Rey,” Kylo said. One of his thumbs was making lazy circles on her cheek as they lay together in their quarters on the _Finalizer_. General Hux had been killed the year prior in a carefully manipulated battle with the Resistance. Many of the other First Order leaders had been similarly picked off, leaving Kylo and Rey the only people that Supreme Leader Snoke could trust.

The _Finalizer_ docked with a quiet thunk against the landing bay of Snoke’s personal battleship. Kylo and Rey had been called in to report and discuss the next steps for the Empire, and were elated that their careful planning had finally paid off.

Kylo Ren and Rey were the last of Snoke’s trusted followers, and so were allowed to meet with the Supreme Leader in the flesh, without other guards. After all, two loyalists such as they could not possibly be a security risk.

Today Snoke learned just how wrong that assumption was.

Once Kylo Ren and Rey were in the meeting chamber with Snoke, they immediately attacked. Kylo moved in fast to engage Snoke with his lightsaber while Rey used the Force to fling small rocks at Snoke as a distraction. 

Snoke only had a moment to look surprised before he drew his own lightsaber to engage with Kylo Ren. Lightsaber hum filled the air, punctuated by the hiss-smack of the two blades parrying each other. Rey continued to pelt Snoke with the admittedly minor distraction of debris from around the chamber, but even that was enough to draw Snoke’s attention away from Kylo Ren at key moments.

The next time Snoke’s full attention was on Kylo Ren, Rey drew her own lightsaber-staff and flanked the Supreme Leader. Now facing two enemies, Snoke was more defensive and tried to keep his attention split evenly between the two young Sith. Rey made two attacks for every one of Kylo Ren’s, forcing Snoke to defend against what was essentially three lightsabers simultaneously. Rey doubted he had fought on this level since General Grievous was still alive.

Kylo Ren and Rey pressed Snoke until his back was literally against a wall, sabers striking burn marks into the wall itself as they fought. Snoke’s parries had gotten slower, which invigorated his two opponents. The attacks flew thick and fast until Snoke missed a key lunge from Kylo Ren. The thrust took Snoke through the heart and temporarily paralysed the Supreme Leader. Rey took advantage of that to remove Snoke’s head from the rest of his body. 

Snoke’s head landed with a sickening crunch on the floor and rolled until it hit the wall of the meeting chamber. 

“Well,” Rey breathed as she turned her blades off. “That’s it, then.” 

Kylo Ren looked over at Rey, turned his saber off, then picked the woman up and spun her around. The two grinned at each other, and Kylo Ren kissed Rey hard once he put her down. 

Rey put up a mock-fight before pushing Kylo off. “We have a lot of work to do now,” she said.

“To finally bring peace to the galaxy,” Ben replied. “But we have made a start.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know last chapter I said I'd do an epilogue, but the muse for this barely managed to help write this chapter. Sorry folks, but this is the end of this weird train. (Just in time for Revenge of the Fifth day!)


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